There Seems to be a growing number of......

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   Joe Badtoeposted 12 years ago

   people posting on here with some pretty ugly racist undertones scattered in their posts.
   
   Pretty depressing stuff.
   
   I have and never will understand anyone who can make a judgment or dislike someone using skin colour as a starting point.
   
   There seems to be more and more right wing views smothering the community spirit on here too.
   
   Why is that?

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      Never_Forgetposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      There are racists everywhere in life (it's something that's literally ingrained in us from infancy; education is the only cure) and there are tons more racists if you are the type of person who gets offended at any type of remark regarding race. There are stereotypes for a reason and if people can't have a sense of humor about them in 2010 then that's their own problem. I am Japanese and I find asian jokes to be hilarious most of the time. The times I don't find them hilarious are when they are lame, not because they are offensive.
      
      If you are talking about racist remarks that are hateful then that's different. People who use racist remarks in a derogatory and hateful manner still exist in society and HubPages is not immune to them.
      
      As for the growing number of right wing views...I don't think that's a legitimate thing to complain about. Hopefully that was just an observation. People can have their own political views all they want and the fact that more of them are showing up shouldn't be something to worry about. To each his own.

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         Polly Cposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Sorry but I just don't agree that racism in ingrained in infants and the only way to resolve that is education. Young children, in my opinion, begin life not noticing race at all unless attention is drawn to it. That is the experience I have had with my own children anyway. In fact, my oldest son never used to refer to a person's colour even when describing their physical appearance, when he was younger. It was just never an issue and still is not.

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            Never_Forgetposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Actually I read an article about it in TIME in a waiting room last year while waiting for my girlfriend to get done getting a check-up during her pregnancy. When I have time I will try to dig up an online version of the article for you. They did a study and it showed that most toddlers from the beginning are discriminatory towards certain things. That's partly why kids have "favorite colors".

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               Polly Cposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Well, I'm just going from my own experiences as a parent, in a city in which non-white people still are the minority. I have a toddler plus a ten year old, and have never heard a word of discrimination regarding a person's colour from either of them. I have not taught this to them ,it is simply how they are. In fact, I rarely discuss ethnic minorities at all.  My oldest child has one single black friend, who also knows my (very verbal) toddler. My toddler has never uttered a single world about the difference in colour. What's the difference anyway, between skin colour and hair colour, for instance? A young child does not even understand that people have different origins, so does not see people as different from one another. At least, that is my observations based on my own environment.
               
               On another topic, last year one of the dad's at school (a parent of a boy in my ten year old son's class), changed sex and suddenly became a woman wearing woman's clothes and boots. Despite this man being in the playground every day, my son did not even notice for weeks. When he eventually did and thought it was 'weird' to use his words, I told him that some people feel as though they have been born the wrong gender and want to change. 'Oh.' was all he said, and has never spoken about it since. Children are often more tolerant than we give them credit for, and sometimes far more tolerant than adults.

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                  Never_Forgetposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  I know what you are saying an can sympathize. The study I read about may have been taken under different circumstances than what you're used to, I'm not sure. We all know how studies go any way, there is always some kind of flaw. The article I read did make sense to me and it explained how kids can have favorite colors and stuff like that.
                  
                  They did a bunch of exercises with the kids and I don't mean to imply that ALL of the kids were doing this, only most of them,  and I really don't want to imply that they were "racist". They did separate friends by skin color but there wasn't any animosity or hatred behind their motive. By the sound of your post it seems like you might have misunderstood in that aspect. They simply are aware of the differences between skin color and separate them accordingly when asked to place them into groups however they want.
                  
                  Sorry, I wish I could find a source...I'm curious about it again

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            rebekahELLEposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            it sounds like you have 'modeled' well how to accept others.
            young children will generally model their parents views and observe how their parents live their lives.
            
            our young children now are living in a world where they have more chances to see many different kinds of people, and to experience more cultural diversities. an infant/young child who feels secure and accepted in his environment will be better able to develop tolerance for others.
            
            as far as adults who are racist and intolerant.. I think it's rooted in fear and not feeling secure, maybe since childhood.
            those adults out with their signs and outfits and rants do the same thing in front of their kids. some kids will either go along with their parents point of view or rebel and go to the other extreme or at least attempt to find middle ground. we need adults to act like adults. this ranting and raving is very destructive.

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         dutchman1951posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Never---kids are innocent, until an adult educates them, that is!
         
         also it is just as insulting for social engineers to tell folks what they should think, eat, act, read and vote like, so education turns off in both directions!
         
         I think we all should step back, accept one another and chill. This world needs a sincer break right now.
         
         We would do better to work on eliminating qualifers to see a person with,
         
         qualifying words like "Islamic" person, "White " person, "Black" person, "Mexican" person. Why can we not just say Person and leave it there????????????????

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            alternate poetposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            The problem with eliminating names is that you cannot talk about them if you do.  If you want to discuss the current issue with 'Muslim's' you must name them.  It is HOW we discuss, by categorising and dissecting.
            
            I cannot agree about kids in the post above - a stage in social development is defining ourselves and we do it against everything, we also are learning to control our envirinment, and so looking for 'power'.  If I see myself as black because you are white, and then percieve there is some social advantage in being black then a child will use this information.

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   GmaGoldieposted 12 years ago

   People who are scared hate.  It takes wisdom and understanding.  We live in scary times - hopefully the Internet will showcase we are more similar than different.
   
   COEXIST - very wise - don't believe - listen to the words of a great Pilgrim who once walked this earth:
   
   Mahatma Gandhi
   
   When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall -- think of it, ALWAYS!

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   Pcunixposted 12 years ago

   Because economic troubles bring out the worst in people.
   Because our school systems don't educate very well.
   Because not enough people speak out against it as you just did

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   BRIAN SLATERposted 12 years ago

   people hate change and during such times they stick to their insecurities just as pcunix has said- we aint seen nothing yet - the worst is to come.

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   Mighty Momposted 12 years ago

   Oh boy, you've opened the hornet's nest now, joe! *Duck and cover*
   
   The people with that mindset firmly believe they are RIGHT (not just right wing). Their belief is so absolute that nothing, no amount of reason, will shake them from it.
   There are a couple (okay, maybe one) who argue the right's point of view but are tongue-in-cheek about it (kinda like Stephen Colbert).
   Most of the others just seem to be one-trick ponies. They have the bit in their mouth and are used to being led around by the limited sources (sometimes just two: The Constitution and the Bible) they accept input from.
   Then there are the hatemongers, or bullies. They make it impossible to argue rationally because their attacks are personal and venomous.
   
   Like it or not,the forums are just that, forums. They are open. We always have the choice of not participating, or creating a different thread. Or taking our thoughts and creating hubs. Then we do have control over what comments we allow!!!
   
   Peace, out

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   Mighty Momposted 12 years ago

   "...it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
   
   Obama called it right, and that was 2 years ago.

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      Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, he did, but remember the dumbo reaction?

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      couturepopcafeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Mighymom - what's that mean? Obama called it right?

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7. 60

   Joe Badtoeposted 12 years ago

   I reember when I was 12 years ld I went to see a movie with three kids who went to my school. I was white and my three friends were from 1st generation West Indian immigrants.
   
   We came out of the movie about 9.30 pm on a dark night in winter and we were heading home. Two policemen approached us and asked my three rfriends to stand against the wall empty theri pockets an explain what they were doing out so late. I was not asked to join my friends. We had done nothing wrong and I asked one of the cops why they were not asking me the same questions and I was told to 'just go home'. I refused and was threatend with arrest so I asked to be arrested and my friends also suggested that I should leasve them there. I wouldn't do that and in the end the police let us all go. That was my first experience of racism and it's never left me.
   
   I have never in my life hated anything more than a racist. That has got me into a few tight spots but I'll never change my view.

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      couturepopcafeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      You're a good man, Charlie Brown.  (Seriously.)

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8. 76

   lovemychrisposted 12 years ago

   Or it could be this:
   
   EXPOSING THE RIGHTWING PR MACHINE: IS CNBC’S RICK SANTELLI SUCKING KOCH?
   By Mark Ames and Yasha Levine
   
   "A nationwide “tea party” grassroots Internet protest movement has sprung up seemingly spontaneously, all inspired by Santelli, with rallies planned today in cities from coast to coast to protest against Obama’s economic policies.
   
   But was Santelli’s rant really so spontaneous? How did a minor-league TV figure, whose contract with CNBC is due this summer, get so quickly launched into a nationwide rightwing blog sensation? Why were there so many sites and organizations online and live within minutes or hours after his rant, leading to a nationwide protest just a week after his rant?
   
   What hasn’t been reported until now is evidence linking Santelli’s “tea party” rant with some very familiar names in the Republican rightwing machine, from PR operatives who specialize in imitation-grassroots PR campaigns (called “astroturfing”) to bigwig politicians and notorious billionaire funders. As veteran Russia reporters, both of us spent years watching the Kremlin use fake grassroots movements to influence and control the political landscape. To us, the uncanny speed and direction the movement took and the players involved in promoting it had a strangely forced quality to it. If it seemed scripted, that’s because it was.
   
   What we discovered is that Santelli’s “rant” was not at all spontaneous as his alleged fans claim, but rather it was a carefully-planned trigger for the anti-Obama campaign.
   
   As you read this, Big Business is pouring tens of millions of dollars into their media machines in order to destroy just about every economic campaign promise Obama has made, as reported recently in the Wall Street Journal. At stake isn’t the little guy’s fight against big government, as Santelli and his bot-supporters claim, but rather the “upper 2 percent”’s war to protect their wealth from the Obama Adminstration’s economic plans. When this Santelli “grassroots” campaign is peeled open, what’s revealed is a glimpse of what is ahead and what is bound to be a hallmark of his presidency."
   
   
   *********
   Hmmmmm. Much like the Hasbarats I think. Rotten little punks I think too.
   
   (great title though huh?...LOL)

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9. 60

   Joe Badtoeposted 12 years ago

   Some great reponses from good people. Thanks for taking time out to read this.
   
   I understand the sometimes fractious nature of open forums and it's onl right that people from all political persuasions get the saem opportunity to air their views.
   
   What I truly object to are those minorty but extreme ignorant people who hide behind a wafer thin argument knowing that their point is more to do with racism than politics.
   
   Mild conservative folk are fine (maybe misguided) there are millions of conservatives in the US and UK are deep down good people who vote for genuine reasons. It's the minority of greedy selfish people that seem to get all the publicity which stokes up their ego even further.
   
   These are the dangerous ones who have the power and the influence to stir up racial hatred.

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